The Last Voyage
by Melyanne
Summary: Everyone get an expiry date on their hand. Some are born with them, others get them later in life. Cooper gets a six month warning and drags his brother with him on a experience cruise that will cause Blaine's heart to be tested in more ways then one.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** _This was written as a reply to a prompt on Glee Angst Meme. __In this AU, everyone gets an expiry date. Some are born with them, expecting 60 years more, others get them only a year ahead of the date. The start of this story will be set in the timeline of season one and then go over in season two so before Kurt and Blaine actually meet. Blaine is a freshman at Dalton having to redo a year after he was beaten up after the dance. While it is going to be Blaine/Kurt centered I thought I should start at the beginning and show some Anderson brother love as well, so do not worry readers Kurt will show up. It just might take a few chapters for him to do so._

* * *

Blaine normally slept like a rock most nights. This had not always been the case, but the young teen felt safe at his dorm room in Dalton Academy and so hardly anything could wake him up until his body had its eight hours of rest.

When a pillow came crashing into his face however his survival instincts took over and he gasped before looking around the room for whoever wanted to hurt him.

"Pick up your phone Blaine," his roommate Nick Duval growled where he was lying on his own bed glaring at him. "It has been ringing for ages and I do not think the person who wants to reach you is about to give up anytime soon."

In his sleepy haze he glanced over at his phone that was lying on his bedside table and saw that it was blinking with missed calls. Looking at the clock he saw that it was just after three at night and he wondered who might want to reach him at this time. Before he could check who it might be however his phone started to blare out the ring tone again, and Blaine could not believe that he had not woken up by it. It was just so loud.

"Pick it up, and throw me back my pillow so I can try to get back to sleep." His roommate told him pulling the covers over his head trying to block the sound of the annoying phone.

Blaine grabbed the pillow and phone holding them in his hands while looking at the Caller ID. It was his older brother Cooper calling and he could not for the life of him figure out what the older Anderson wanted with him in the middle of the night. All he thought as he made a half assed attempt to throw the pillow back to Nick and pick up the phone at the same time was that his older brother better not butt dial him again.

"Cooper?"

He really did not know why he was asking; who other then Cooper would call him from that number, but who knew maybe there had been an accident or something. As he started to think about all the difference scenarios about what could have happened to his brother he started to get more and more worried.

"B-Blaine," it was his brother that was for sure but his voice was slurry as if he was very tired or very drunk.

Blaine guessed the later.

"Are you drunk?" He could not believe that his older brother was drunk calling him.

Sure it had happened a few times before when the older Anderson wanted to tell his younger brother something awesome that happened but it was ages since last time. Cooper Anderson had been somewhat of a wild child, driving their parents and to some degree Blaine up the walls with annoyance. The last few years Cooper had started to get on track, which was about time considering he was not getting any younger and he was already twenty-seven years old. Cooper had not bothered with college and had gone out in the world to find himself instead and it was only a couple of years ago that he just happened to figure out that he was wanted to do. Sure it had probably been a little ambitious of him to want to be a famous movie star but at least it was something. So far Cooper had not done much, though he had starred in a couple of adverts and was auditioning for parts all over Hollywood in the hope of making it big.

"I'm expiring B!" His brother's slurred voice called out. "I will never become a big Hollywood actor now."

God, was his older brother actually calling him in the middle of the night because he had a freak out if he ever was going to make it big? Blaine suppressed the groan that was threatening to escape his mouth and took a deep breath instead. "You are not expiring Cooper, you are only twenty-seven, a lot of Hollywood actors made it big after they turned thirty. Just look at Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone, both of them had their big breaks after they turned thirty years old. You still have a few years before you need to start worrying." He knew that it was hard to reason with the older man while on the phone, but at least he had to try. Chances were that Cooper would wake up with a hangover later and have forgotten all about what had happened anyway.

"N-no you don't understand," Cooper voice was shaking slightly now and Blaine was pretty sure that his brother was crying. Blaine sighed; feeling way too tired to let this go on all night which it seemed like was the direction it was going. "The expiring date is on my hand."

Blaine's breath caught in his throat and he almost lost the phone in shock.

"W-what?" He could not really believe it.

Cooper had not been born with his expiring date on his hand like most people. It only happened to like five percent of the world's population but most people got their date in their teens, something about the hormones making the magic figuring out when it was time for them to die. Cooper Anderson had been one of those few who never had their date appear however, the two brothers had joked about it and figured that Cooper's date would probably end up showing up when he was sixty or something and giving him another thirty years for all the trouble.

"It is on my hand Blaine," Cooper sounded somewhat more sober now though his breathing made it clear that he was falling to pieces.

"Are you sure it is not someone playing a joke on you with a magic marker, did you try to wash it off?" It was a stupid thought really, who could ever be so cruel to do such a thing after all but Blaine had to ask because by the sound of it whatever the date said was not good news.

"I tried but it didn't go away," his brother was sobbing down the phone now and Blaine could only hope that the older man was in his apartment or something so that he was safe and not out on the streets.

"How long?"

It took a couple of seconds for Cooper to really answer him, making a hope spark in Blaine that his brother had been too drunk to see the date right and that they still had tons of years together but that hope was crushed at his brother's next words.

"I won't live to see my next birthday."

Cooper had only turned twenty-seven five months ago.

"Come home," Blaine tried to keep his emotions under control so that he would not break down but he could feel the control slipping quickly. "Just come home and stay at the house, I will move back home as well and be there with you okay?"

"I will take the first plane in the morning."

Confirming the plan they finally hang up with promises of seeing each other as soon as Cooper's plane landed and it was not until then that Blaine finally let himself break down. He did not even realize that Nick had been awake the whole time he had been on the phone before the other teen pulled him into a hug and let him cry on his shoulder.

"It is going to be okay Blaine; everything is going to be okay." Nick told him as he tried to comfort the lead-soloist of the Warblers the best he could.

It was not going to be okay however, his older brother was going to die and Blaine dug his nails into his own palm where the confirmation that he was going to live for over fifty years more without his brother was written.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N:**__ I was so happy to see people putting this story up on their story alerts, I did not think so many people would and I was so happy when I saw how many did so. This is like the first fanfiction I have written in over a year so I am really out of practice but I want to try my best with this story so I am always up for any ideas people might have and stuff. I never actually thought I would be writing one of these 'on a person's palm stories' but here I am writing it and I just hope I am doing it justice. I was not to please with this chapter but I have been trying to rewrite it for days now and thought that I should probably post something soon so people do not get mad and think I have given up on the story. Anyway, on with the story._

* * *

"Look what arrived in the mail."

Blaine hardly got a chance to even look up from his history homework before a big envelope was thrown onto his desk almost knocking over the glass of water that he had gotten himself only a few minutes before.

"What is this?" He asked as he picked up the heavy envelope.

"It is our next big adventure Squirt," his brother said while grinning like an idiot.

It had been almost four months since Cooper had called Blaine with the news that his expiring date had appeared on his hand and true to his word the older Anderson brother had come home. The first few weeks had been spent pretty much wallowing in misery for the two brothers until Cooper had decided that they had to stop acting like he was already dead and start to live life again.

"Don't call me that!"

Cooper just chuckled and sat down on the bed. "Go on," he indicated to the envelope that Blaine was still holding in his hand. "Open it."

Doing as his brother told him to his carefully opened the envelope so not to destroy anything that it might contain. Looking over its content Blaine realized what it was and he could feel the familiar feeling of sadness grow in his heart as it always did when Cooper's condition was pointed out in some way.

His brother always seemed to notice however and stood up from the bed and walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey," he said a small smile on his lips that did not really reach his eyes. "None of that now, we promised to stay angst free remember?"

They had, but it was not always easy to keep that promise.

Blaine nodded though and pulled out the catalog.

About ten years ago the government put up a program for those who got their expiring date less than a year before their time. A sort of 'we are sorry this is happening to you' kind of thing. It was a Cruise package for the person that was about to expire and their family to be able to have the best last experience on this earth as possible. Blaine really had not even considered that his brother would actually get the invite. Not that Cooper was not qualified it was just not the first thing that he had been thinking of when he got the news that his brother was going to leave this world.

"So do you want to go?"

His brother's voice got Blaine to realize that he had been lost in the picture of the front of the catalog watching the happy people lounging around the deck of a huge ship seeming to have their time of their life. All he had been able to wonder was who of the people on that deck was the once that was expiring.

"Do you?"

It was a stupid question off course; Blaine knew that Cooper would love the idea of going on the experience cruise. Ever since their 'no angst allowed' deal his older brother had made everything he possibly could to get Blaine's mind off the fact that he would not be there next year. It had started off with small improve performances of songs that they had done together while they had been younger and over the summer his brother had dragged him off to one adventure to the next. Over the last few months Blaine had gone on more adventures then he probably would experience for the rest of his life, though he had drawn the line at bungee jumping off a cliff.

"Off course I want to go Blaine," Cooper was almost bouncing in place now out of excitement. "And you are coming with me."

"What about school?"

Blaine really wanted to go, but he knew that his parents would frown upon it if it got in the ways of his studies and from what he had heard about these cruise packages it could last for over a month if not more.

"I already talked to your dean and he said that Dalton has special arrangements for these things. You will have a lot of makeup work to do when you get back but I know you can manage that." So his brother had already talked to the dean before the offer was even presented to them, which had meant that while Cooper seemed to act like nothing was wrong he had been planning this for a while.

Blaine tried to suppress the tears that threatened to escape his eyes as Cooper indirectly pointed out that he would be the only one coming back after the trip.

He had tried to talk his parents into letting him take another year off school after the summer to be able to be with Cooper more but they had refused to let him do so. He was already one year behind because of the attack that had made him transfer to Dalton and having him lose another year was not an option. In the end he had however quit the Warblers feeling that he could not give it his all while his brother was so close to leaving him. The other Warblers had been saddened by the news but the Council had promised to keep his place open for when he was ready to join them again.

"What about mom and dad?"

Their parents were not around much, too busy with their jobs and social obligations to really spend time with their children and the two brothers were used to it as it was the way it had been since they were kids. Even after the news that their oldest son was going to die in less than a year they did not change their ways and seemed to spend even less time at home. While it was not really spoken off both Blaine and Cooper knew that their parents were probably disappointed in their kids, Blaine because he was gay and Cooper because he was going to die before giving them any grandchildren and make something out of his life.

"When I found out about this," Cooper held out his palm so that Blaine could see the terrible evidence of his brother's expiring date. "My first instinct was not to mom or dad, it was to call you. You are like the only real family I have Blaine and I love you more than anything."

"I love you too Cooper," Blaine grabbed his brother's waist; the catalog he had been holding slipped through his fingers and fell to the floor. He let go of his struggle with suppressing his tears. "I don't want to lose you."

"You will never lose me Blaine," Cooper half dragged Blaine off the office chair and onto the bed never letting go off him. "I might not be there in person but I will always be there for you okay, never forget that."

They both let themselves cry as they had denied themselves to do for months now, clutching each other and refusing to let go.

Blaine did not know how much time had passed before his brother finally spoke again.

"So you never answered my question," Cooper's voice sounded tired but with the emotional breakdown they had just experienced it was not surprising. "You want to go with me to on the cruise? You know I won't take no for an answer."

"I know," there was nothing more to say about it really. They both knew that they would end up on the cruise because Cooper would want to do it and Blaine would do anything to make Cooper happy and to spend time with him.


End file.
